


Unexpected Encounters

by Quietserval



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Gill!Kat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-10 15:38:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3295712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quietserval/pseuds/Quietserval
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feferi walks in on Karkat in the shower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Feferi: Consider your current situation

The thing about living in the ocean is that there is really no need to bathe. When you’re in the water the sopor slime slides right off, and any accumulated dirt or sand is washed away by the currents.

Which is why after spending several perigees of fighting imps, trekking through a land of brains and fire, and battling for your lives against the Black King, you feel like a bloated whale carcass that has been washed up on shore for too long. And you and everyone else smell like it too.

You leave the computer lab to sea if you can find an ablution chamber to freshen up in. Or take a swim in. You miss swimming so much; you spent so little time in your own land, and Alternia’s seas are long gone. You’ve seen the giant test tubes filled with monstrous chessmen on the lower levels, but you are not desperate enough to dip your fins in them quite yet.

You come across one down the hall. It is, unfortunately, already occupied when you open the door. Equius is standing over one of the ablution traps and steadily making his way through a stack of towels. You back out before before he can take notice of you. Your desire for a scrub down isn’t strong ( )(A-)(A! ) enough to be worth dealing with Equius’s posturing and perspiration.

You close the door behind you and retreat tactfully.

 

Feferi: Wander the meteor some more

You spend the next half hour wandering the maze of halls and rooms of the laboratory. You don’t find an ablution chamber but you do come across a multitude of treashore chests that you rifle through unabashedly. If they didn’t want someone going through their stuff they should have put a lock on it!

You manage to scrounge up a (clean) towel and a scrub brush in the shape of a cuttlefish that you must have alchemized and forgotten about.

You pop the towel and brush into your sylladex and keep wandering. You do eventually come across another ablution block. The sound of running water is audible through the door.

 

Feferi: See who’s in the block

There are a row of showers all along one wall and there’s someone occupying the one at the very end of the room.

Karkat is resting his forehead on the tiles of the ablution chamber wall as water pours down over him.

Your first thought is to back out of the block as quickly and quietly as possible to give Karkat some privacy. However, you notice something that makes you pause in your retreat.

There are three bright red slashes across Karkat’s ribs that flutter and pulse as the water washes over them.

It takes a long moment to process what you’re seeing. Those look like…gills. On Krabkat of all trolls!

You knew that he must have been hiding something, what with his funny grey text and baggy sweaters that covered up every inch of him. For good reason, too, if the bright red on Karkat’s ribs is anything to go by.

You step back into the block almost without thinking. The door, without anything keeping it open, slams back into place with a bang.

You and Karkat both jump at the sound. Karkat flips around to face the source of the noise and sees you. He presses back into the wall as though he hopes to disappear into it. His pupils are pinpricks, and his chest is heaving, every inch of him standing on end.

The two of you stare at each other from across the room. A flurry of emotions flash over Karkat’s face; surprise, shock, anger, fear. He looks like he wants to scream something out but is keeping himself in check for the moment.

“Karkat…?”, you call out softly, not wanting to alarm him any more than you already have.

Your voice seems to have snapped him out of his trance. Karkat scrambles back but is blocked by the very wall he was clutching at. He slips on the wet floor and falls magnificently onto his ass with a wet smack!

Ouch, that shore looked like it hurt!

He manages to get back onto his feet and before you can say anything else, Karkat is running through the door at the opposite end of the block. You can hear his feet smacking against the floor as he runs down the hall. The shower is still pouring water down onto the tiles.

Well.

That just happened. Now what?

Karkat: Be the idiot running down the hall

You cannot be Karkat because he is currently freaking the fuck out and therefore unable take on the role of a reliable narrator at this moment. Not to mention that he just slipped on the floor again. That’s what you get for running around soaking wet.


	2. Chapter 2

Feferi: Resume the role of the reliable narrator.

Gladly!

Since the ablution block is now empty of everyone but yourself, you might as well do what you came here for in the first place

The water is still running in the stall Karkat was standing in so you go to it and adjust the temperature knob until the temperature is to your liking. As the water washes over you and you scrub at your hair, you go over your encounter with Karkat in your head.

You hadn’t meant to surprise him like that, reely! It was just a little bit unexpected was all. You want to talk to him about what happened, maybe apologize to him for barging in on him, only without Karkat running away again. It means having another confrontation with him, but hopefully somewhere besides another ablution block.

Something else rises to mind as you shut off the water. You had already had an inkling (octopus ink, hee) about Karkat’s blood but the gills are a different story. From what your were briefly able to see of them, they had not looked quite …right.

The opercula had been tinged pink, the filaments chafed and sticking out oddly. There’s no doubt that the gills are a part of Karkat’s mutation, but you’ve seen your fair share of injuries and illnesses and those did not look healthy at all; flushed with more blood than was normal, you doubt that it was just a part of his mutation, if at all.

As your wring your hair dry, you note how you feel so much better now. You feel cleaner than you have been in a perigree and you can breathe a bit more easily now that you’ve run some water through your gills- ah. (Oh!)

That’s what Karkat had been doing in the ablution block! Whatever had happened to his gills Something happened to his gills, so he must have thought that running some water over them (through them) would help. That idiot, you think as you face palm. That’ would be like putting a tiny bandage on a stab wound, it wouldn't do anything at all.

The beginnings of a krill-iant idea are beginning to coalesce in your thinkpan. All you have to do now is to track down Crabsnack and have him listen to you without running away again.

***

Feferi: Enter the lab

The lab is mostly empty, everyone apparently having scattered around the meteor to do their own thing . Sollux is still at his husktop terminal, his claws ‘klak klak’ -ing on the keyboard as he types.

You come up behind him and gently put your hand on his shoulder. He startles, sparking red and blue for a moment before turning around.

“Oh, hey FF.” He turns back to face the screen.

Hi Shoal-ux” you reply, resting your chin on top of his head, right between his horns. “Water you still doing here? Everyone’s off doing their own thing and the lab is a deserted island.”

“Which is exactly why I’m still here,” Sollux says smugly, “With no KK screaming/combusting in rage at something every five seconds or horns honking or someone coming to me with a problem that “needs to be fixed right now it's super important Sollux” - (he makes exaggerated air quotes with his fingers) - ”I finally have the peace and quiet I need to get some work done.”

“Well, I’m happy that you’re getting your ‘important’ work done.” You also put air quotes around ‘important.’ Two can play at that game. “But I, um, was wondering if you’ve sea-n Karkat recently?”

Sollux pauses in his typing and turns around fully to face you. “He’s probably dicking around somewhere like everyone else is. Why do you want to talk to him?”

You mumble your reply to him.

He holds his hand up to his ear. “What’s that FF? I couldn’t hear what you said.”

You let out a frustrated glub and spill out “I accidentally walked in on Karkat when he was in the ablution stall and he ran off before I could apologize to him so I wanted to talk to him before it got anymore awkward than it already it.” You refrain yourself from mentioning anything about the gills. That is also part of the reason you want to speak with Karkat, but you don’t think he would appreciate anyone else knowing about them.

Sollux guffaws. “You mean he went off running buck naked in the meteor? That’s fucking hilarious, FF. ”

You swat at his shoulder, gently though. “No it’s not, stop laughing!”

“Ehehe, it’s a little bit funny.” He wipes an imaginary tear from out of the corner of his eye. “But, no I haven’t seen him. He’s probably in his room though if you want to look for him there.”

“No duh, Shoal-ux! But I'm not going to barge into his private space!” You call to him as you walk to the transportalizer in the center of the lab.

“Not for a second time, right?” he calls back, attention focused back on his husktop.

You throw your shoe at the back of his head but he catches it in a field of psi. As you leave the block, you can see your shoe slowly orbiting around his head like a black, oblong moon.

Great thinking, Piexes, you think to yourself. Now you’re short one shoe, and have still not found Karkat. At least you know where to start looking.

***

Karkat: How are you doing right now?

LIKE YOU JUST GOT ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST SECRETS EXPOSED THAT’S HOW. IT’S BAD ENOUGH THAT EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT YOUR SHITTY MUTANT BLOOD BUT THIS IS MILES ABOVE THAT. IN FACT IT'S SO FAR BEYOND THAT IT'S BOARDED AN IMPERIAL CRUISER SHIP AND LAUNCHED ITSELF INTO FUCKING SPAC- wait, what was that.

You strain your ears and- there! Someone is calling your name. It sounds distressingly like Feferi.

You groan loudly, running your fingers through your hair until it’s pointing every which way. Feferi is the last person that you want to see right now. Not only did she catch you in a vulnerable moment -- in the shower of all places! Didn’t decent people knock before entering an ablution block? -- but she saw your unfortunate mutation. Or at least, the one you had been so far successful in hiding.

Maybe you can convince her that your “gills” were a trick of the light, or weird scars that you got from fighting ogres or during a daring scythe maneuver. Yeah, that ruse would hold up as well as a wet, limp tissue.

As the sound of Feferi’s calls grows louder, you review your choices. You don’t really have that many, but here they are anyway; you can troll-up and talk to Feferi, convince her that what she saw was a trick of the light, and give her a piece of your mind about how trolls who weren’t raised in a barn actually do the polite thing and KNOCK before entering someone’s block, really. Or you could keep hiding in this space you’ve claimed as your own and wait until Feferi gets bored enough that she’ll leave.

“Karkat I know you’re in there! Sollux told me, so stop hiding like a wiggler. I just want to talk to you.”

Fuck, there goes the latter half of your plan. You mentally compose the beginnings of a rant that you’ll deliver to Sollux when you get out of here. That traitorous fiend.

The sound of knocking comes from the door. (Oh, so NOW she deigns to knock).

You take a deep breath and let it out noisily. You might as well get it over with. You go over to the door and swipe your hand over the access pad.

The door slides open with a pneumatic hiss and Feferi is standing before you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A HUGE thankyou to beforuskanaya for betaing this!! And thank you to everyone who left a kudos or read this!!


	3. Chapter 3

Feferi: Put your plan into action

Your plan sort of crumbles like a sandcastle beneath a wave when you see Karkat’s face. He looks like he’s about to be executed and you’re the one to do it. He’s scared and failing miserably at hiding it. Oh no.

Karkat schools his face into something resembling composure. He crosses his arms and aims a glare at you. “What do you want Feferi?”

You step into the block and the door hisses closed behind you. “I came here to apologize for walking in on you while you were using the ablution block. Annnnd to maybe offer some advice to help you because from what I saw, your gills are kind of messed up,” you quickly.

Karkat’s face pales to an unhealthy shade of grey.

“You didn’t tell anyone what you saw, did you? Because if you did, I swear I-”

You hold you hands up in a placating manner. “Hold you seahorses, of course I didn’t tell anyone else. I came to you.”

Karkat throws his arms up as though in supplication to some greater being residing in the ceiling. “Great! At least one good thing came out of this putrid mess of a situation!” He narrows his eyes at you. “Why did you really come here anyway. Came to gloat and hold it over my head?”

You groan in exasperation. “I was searious about both the things I just told you! I’m reely sorry and I want to help! Also, you ran away before I could do anything!”

He flinches but then he pulls his normal grumpy exterior over himself like a cloak.

“I don’t need any of your help Feferi. I’m not like one of your dumb cuttlefish.”

Your fins flare out and you seethe. “My cuttlefish were not dumb. Cephalopoda are extremely intelligent and adorabubble! Just what are you implying?”

Karkat looks down to the floor, scuffing the toe of his shoe against it, scowling.

“I mean,” he says through gritted teeth, “I am not some helpless sea creature that needs to be taken care of. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you very fucking much.”

You cannot believe what you are hearing.

“Take care of yourself my butt Karkrab! Is that what you were doing back there in the ablution chamber? Because I can tell you right now that was definitely not the right way to take care of a pair of irritated gills yourself.”

“Like I said before, I was taking care of it! And its like none of your business anyway!”

“Kaaaarkrab, you can’t just run some water over your gills and expect them to get better. Its like putting a teeny tiny bandage on a stab wound. Let me take a look at them.”

Karkat shrieks and slaps away your outstretched hand. “Get your goddamed flippers off of me, have you no concept of personal space at all?”

“Sorry, sorry!"  You back up some, giving him space. "I sholedn’t have done that. I didn’t mean to get into your personal bubble.”

“You didn’t seem to have trouble with that earlier!”

“Karkat Vantas! For glub’s sake will you shut your trap and listen!” you screech, your temper completely thrown out the window.

Karkat shuts his mouth with a click. His face is red from yelling and he's still glowering at you. He makes a swishing motion with one hand to indicate that you can speak.

You take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t care that you’re a mutant, that you’re not on the spectrum. Because, guess what! It was a stupidly convenient way of categorizing trolls back home. But newsflash! Alternia is gone now and there's only twelve of us left so it doesn’t even matter anymore!

Karkat huffs. He can stand to be quiet for only so long. “So what! You're right, it was a stupid system but you're _still_ insisting on taking care of me because apparently the poor ickle lowblood can’t take care of himself, is that right?”

“Yes! I mean- ugh! No! Its because you're a big idiot who doesn’t know the first thing about keeping themselves healthy and instead keeps hurting themselves!”

He flushes, two red, blotchy spots high on his cheeks. “You’re not my moirail either Piexes, don't try to-”

“I know I'm not! And I'm not really looking for one right now either! Karkat, you're my friend and I am trying to help you out because I care about you AS A FRIEND! GLUB.”

“I don’t need coddling!”

“I want to help you because you are one of my friends, not because I feel bad for your or want to coddle you. Can you get that through your thick skull?”

Silence. You and Karkat both stand facing each other, out of breath from yelling. Karkat unfurls from his defensive stance and you also relax. Karkat scrunches his face up like what he is about to say pains him.

“Ok, fine. I can accept that you want to help. But!” he levels an intense stare at you, “any _finny_ business and I’ll shove a sickle though your facegash.”

You can’t help it, you let out a laugh. When Karkat’s expression changes to one of fury, you hold out your hands, placating. “Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t expecting you to use a pun like that when you were so searious.”

Karkat snorts. “Just wanted to make sure that we were both on the same wavelength.”

“That’s another one! Krabcatch, I didn’t know that you were so good at this!”

“Oh my god, enough with the puns,” says Karkat exasperatedly. “You’re the one who wanted to take a gander at my gross mutant body, so let’s get that over with.”

You smother your giggles and get serious. “Yeah, yeah, show me already!”   

Karkat sucks in a deep breath and, after a long moment, pulls up his sweater. You lean in.

Up close and personal Karkat’s gills are worse than you remember from your brief glance in the ablution block. The edges of the operculum are dry and flaking and permeated with a dull, irritated red.

You _tsk_ and take a step closer and Karkat immediately takes a step back. You hold your ground until he isn’t so tense again. “I just need to take a closer look Karkat, I’m not going to do anything, I prawnmise. Can you open them up a little? I need to see how they look on the inside.

“They burn and chafe like hell, that’s what’s going on inside them. Besides, they don’t really open up, they’re not exactly viewing portals that can swing open whenever to look at my gross insides!”

“Uh, yes, Karkat you can open up your gills, you know like when they flare out when you glub.”

A pause. Karkat looks at you like you spontaneously grew a second head. “I don’t glub, that’s a seadweller thing!”

“Yeah swell, you technically are, Mister Grumpygills! Now open up!”

Quick as a flash, you pinch one of the operculum between your fingers and lift it up. You hold it up just for a moment to take a peek inside until Karkat squirms away and roughly pushes his sweater back down.

“What the fuck. Piex-”

“Karkat,” you interrupt before he can go on a profane laden tirade, “when was the last time you used your gills? The filaments are really dried out!”

Karkat shuts his jaws with a click and looks uncomfortable. He mumbles something that you can barely understand.

You cup your hand up against your fin. “Speak up Karpcat!”

“Not since before we started playing the Game.”

“You haven’t used them in that long? No wonder they’re giving you so much trouble now.”

Karkat’s hands remain clenched on the hem of his sweater so hard that his knuckles turn white. “I’ve been dealing with them just fine so far. I can handle a little discomfort.”

You drag your hands down your face. “Karkrab,” you say gently, your patience beginning to wear thin, “I know that you are our big, strong leader and that you’re up to handling pain. But if you don’t take care of this now, it’s going to get much worse, dumbass.

  
Karkat glowers at you. “They already burn and itch like hell, how could it get any worse than this?”

You tap your finger on your chin and try to look as pensive as possible. “Wellllll, from what I just saw the filaments are super dry and brittle, so they could break off if they haven’t already! Or”, you add, watching as Karkat’s face becomes progressively paler, “you could get infection that would eventually spread to your lungs, which would hurt like a beach and then you would definitely die! So, yeah, it could get worse than this.”

“How am I supposed to take care of this? I don’t know where you think we are, but we’re on a cold rock/asteroid/lab whatever! in the middle of godforsaken nowhere!”

“The best way to take care of your problem,” you muse, “would be to take a soak in

“I know that! That doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. We just need to think a little creatively.”

Karkat rolls his eyes with such force it’s a miracle they don’t roll right out of his eye sockets. “Oh, yeah now is the definitely the time to be ‘creative,’” his fingers slash out the air quotes. “Why don’t I just take another ablution because that worked out so swimmingly last time!”

“…”

“I was joking.”

“No,” you say slowly, “you actually just gave me a great idea! When I was exploring the meteor earlier I saw something really awesome!”

 

Karkat: Deeply regret following your friends advice

“No.”

“It would work though, come on!”

Currently, you and Feferi are standing on a small platform that juts out above one of the giant liquid filled tubes that litter the bowels of the meteor. Most of them are occupied by monstrously big carapacians that were similar to one you saw on the Battlefield or by white figures that suspiciously resemble lusii. You try not to think too hard about the latter.

The tube that you are currently looking at is free of any occupants and for some reason is filled with what Feferi assures you is salt water. When you asked her why there would be such a thing here she shrugged and said something along the lines of "it was necessary to the plot, don't question it too much Krabcatch!"

 “Yeah, no, I am definitely not going in there," you maintain. "A soak in the ablution trap is one thing. A plunge into a ten-foot-tall test-tube that had who knows what floating in there is a completely different ball game.”

“It’s practically the same thing, just deeper.”

“Let me get one thing clear here. I’ll use simple munchsize words so that you can understand how vehemently opposed I am to this idea. I. Am. NOT. Going. To. Swim. In. There!!” You chop your hands downwards with each word for extra emphasis.

And with that, Feferi unceremoniously pushes you in.

The water is freezing and the impact pushes the breath out of your aeration sacs. Water rushes into your mouth and you choke on it. Fuck, fuck, fuck, your vestigial waste of space gills aren’t working and you are going to drown in here all because your fucking friend believed you could do something that your body clearly stops you from doing. 

Then, as though a switch is flipped, the water flows through you and out instead. Your operculum flutter and you spasm in the water. Your gills sting like a motherfucker with each influx of water passing through you and over your gills and the sudden rush of oxygen makes your head spin.

As you slowly sink to the bottom of the tube, you hear and feel a splash from above. Feferi floats down to your level.

Her expression is an amalgam of relief and unbearable smugness.

In response, you show her your favorite grasping appendage and awkwardly kick your legs out, trying to surface.

Feferi grabs you by the back of your sweater and hauls you up.

When the two of you break through the surface, you cough and splutter as you adjust to breathing air again. Your gills still sting something fierce but not as much as earlier.

Feferi talks over your spluttering. “Sea? It worked out just like I said it would.”

“Your expression said otherwise. Also, never push me in again. You had no idea if it would have actually worked and I could have drowned like a dumbass.”

Feferi has the nerve to ‘pshah’ at you. “But it did work and everything turned out fine. Besides, I would have pulled you up the second I thought you were in trouble. Do your gills feel better?”

“A little,” you concede. Feferi is still holding onto you, her arm slung across your back and hand cupping your side, right above your gills.

“In that case, lets try it again, only this time with less flailing.”

“Oh, fuck you,” you snap, with less than your usual vitriol.

The two of you sink down and this time you are prepared. Glossy air bubbles escape from your mouth and drift upwards from your mouth. 

You gulp a mouthful of water and your operculum flutter. The feeling skeeves you out like nothing else because you’re still not used to feeling them work after spending sweeps imagining that they weren’t there. But… after the initial weirdness you have to admit that it actually feels kind of nice. The stinging sensation in your gills is slowly but steadily receding.

Feferi is still holding onto you which is also nice. Her skin is freezing where it brushes up against yours. She flashes what seems like a thousand sharp teeth at you in a smile. The two of you float in a giant gross monster tube and for a moment you feel content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! Thank you for all the comments, hits, and kudos! I haven't written fanfic in a really long time so seeing people's responses here was really encouraging! And special thank you to beforuskanaya for giving this one last lookover. 
> 
> Hopefully more to come.


End file.
